Balancing oneself on a pivotable indoor balance board has increased in popularity in recent years. These boards have generally relied on the use of a generally oval shaped board with an underside supported by either an inflatable cushion or a roller type pin. The inventor of the subject invention originally invented the original board in 1975 as a way of practicing surfing on land without having to go in the ocean. In 2004 the inventor introduced an inflatable circular shaped air cushion to be used under the balance board deck as a safety feature as well as an enhanced exercise aspect.
Over the years the popularity of these balancing boards have been used in various classes such as school physical education classes, gym classes, and group exercise programs, as a way of integrating core fitness and balance challenges. Staying on top of the board during unilateral and multilateral movements can increase the heart rate while simultaneously improving balance, upper and lower body joint and muscle strength and a sense of self in space (proprioception), which is important for injury prevention and rehab work. These novel balancing boards can be used to simulate stand up paddling and as a tool for practicing yoga exercises in a limited application.
The introduction of Stand Up Paddling (SUP) as a sport beginning in about 1998 has spawned a new form of exercises and yoga related exercises by using the SUP boards as an unstable platform to perform these exercise while on the surface of any applicable body of water. This in turn created a dry land solution by utilizing SUP boards supported by large balance cushions to simulate the instability of the SUP boards on the waters surface. This new exercise phenomenon is known as SUP yoga and SUP fitness.
There are numerous problems with these existing boards. For example, an SUP board is both difficult to carry and transport from location to location. In addition, these elongated boards take up a considerable amount of storage space that many users do not have. In addition these SUP boards can, as a general rule, only be found in close proximity to a suitable body of water. And are not readily available in large metropolitan areas i.e. New York City, Chicago, Denver, Dallas in relation to the number of practitioners of yoga which leaves a large market segment unable to undertake the new exercise trend.
Additionally, the current types of indoor balance boards have limited movement and versatility in relation to SUP yoga exercises. For example, the existing balance boards are limited in length and do not match the space an adult human requires to properly perform yoga. In addition, the roller pin used underneath the board can result in the board slipping off and easily separating from the roller pin. Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.